[1] Néel studied at the Lycée du Parc in Lyon and was accepted at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

He was corecipient (with the Swedish astrophysicist Hannes Alfvén) of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1970 for his pioneering studies of the magnetic properties of solids.

[6] His contributions to solid state physics have found numerous useful applications, particularly in the development of improved computer memory units.

[citation needed] Néel died at Brive-la-Gaillarde on 17 November 2000 at the age 95, just 5 days short of his 96th birthday.

[citation needed] Néel received numerous awards and honours for his work including: Owing to his involvement in national defense, particularly through research in the protection of warships by demagnetization against magnetic mines, he received numerous distinctions: